Broadband speed matters

Ireland is ‘‘slipping in broadband league” according to the OECD’s latest broadband report. The full results are are on the OECD Broadband Portal (source of the charts). Penetration is the main news angle — broadband penetration has increased in Ireland, but we’ve been oven taken on the league table.

Out penetration is mostly low speeds broadband of “up to 1mb,” and mostly below “up to 5mb.” Above shows the average advertised speed, we’re in fifth last place. The true problem with speed is shown in the fastest broadband speed where we come in at forth last. Thus when it comes to penetration of high speed broadband, we’re just starting off — we need a new network. And upload speeds are worse, which means slower upload of video and images.

Speed matters and in coming years it will start to matter more and more. At the moment I’m down the country and Eircom is reminding me how far behind we are — the “up to 1mb” connection I’m at isn’t working at 1mb, and earlier — when more people in the area were online — it was even slower.

On cost, the OECD report Ireland ranks badly and it doesn’t even take into account of our high line rental which is needed for most connections.